This is a great post by a blogger at RH Reality Check. He reposted it from an earlier date on another site.
Tebow's Tears: Is God Really A Gator's Fan?Alabama won in convincing fashion, beating Florida by a final score of 32-13 (while they led throughout the game and led at halftime, Alabama scored 13 points in the second half while their impressive defense held Florida scoreless). Still, the media story all year long has been Florida, and in particular Florida’s remarkably gifted quarterback, Tim Tebow. It is very difficult to watch Tebow play without being impressed by his uncanny combination of athletic skills—among them, speed and agility, raw physical power, boldness, and creative intelligence—and his evident skills as a team leader.
But another story has been brewing for the past year and a half; it became a far more prominent and visible news story in the immediate lead-up to yesterday’s game. That story concerns Tim Tebow’s eyes. To be more precise, it concerns Tebow’s decision, roughly in the middle of last year’s football season, to punctuate the dark stripes under his eyes with biblical verses.
Yes, Tebow does get more attention than anyone. I am a Gator fan, and I think it is overdone.
The blogger tells of a time some TV announcers read the verse number wrong, and they corrected themselves just before Tebow had a bad play. The original blog post was from December.
Last week was “rivalry week” and that meant that Florida played Florida State, still coached by a game octogenarian, Bobby Bowden. That game was a drubbing, not a grudge match, with the 37-10 final score scarcely indicative of how one-sided a performance it was.
Tebow selected Hebrews 12:1-2 for last week’s game.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
In a comical touch, some television announcers at last week’s game misread Tebow’s eye-paint, and read from Hebrews 12:12 (“therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees”), correcting themselves just before one of Tebow’s rare missteps: a long run from scrimmage in which he tried to do too much against too many, and in the course of attempting to manhandle three defenders, had the ball knocked from his hands. That fumble led to Florida State’s first score.
The blogger makes a big point:
...the image that struck me at game’s end, when I wanted to feel more celebratory, was the brief photographic image of Tebow’s tears streaming down across that Bible verse. The waterproofing may have kept the ink from running, but the spirit behind the selection was running fast.
Or else it was coming into focus. It is easy to slip into the temptation of the false security any theology can provide, if it stops being careful and stops paying attention. God on your side would seem to imply perfect seasons, flawless execution, just causes, and even more just results.
He points out at the end that "Learning how to lose is one key aspect of such an encounter. The trick is to do so peace, with good cheer."
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
